Access two Gmail accounts at once in the same browser

                                       Historically, Google Accounts – including Gmail accounts — have only let people access one account at a time per browser, so using both accounts has been a bit inconvenient. We ’ve either had to sign out and sign back in, use a second browser for my second account, or use a Chrome incognito window.

                                      Now, you can visit Google.com/accounts and click the link next to "Multiple sign-in." After you sign into your first account, you can sign in with up to two additional accounts from the new accounts menu in the upper right hand corner of Gmail, then easily toggle back and forth between them. You can even open multiple Gmail tabs — one for each of your accounts.

                                          Please keep in mind that this is a feature for advanced users, and there are a couple things to watch out for:
1) Not all Google services support multiple account sign-in yet.
2) They ’re still working on making Gmail and Calendar work offline with multiple sign-in. If you rely on offline access, you probably don't want to enable this feature quite yet.
3) Multiple account sign-in only works on desktop browsers for now, so if you use Gmail on your phone's browser you won't see this option yet.

If you use more than one Google Account, we hope this makes you more efficient. If you have any questions, check out our help center.

Read more...

Google Chrome Extensions

With these Google Chrome extensions, you can add more features to the browser to help you with designing, debugging, and working on websites. We share with you the top ten Chrome extensions for designers and developers.

1. Resolution Test

Resolution Test is an extension for testing web pages in different screen resolutions, with an option to define your own custom resolutions. This is very handy in making sure that your web design looks great under different monitor sizes.

2. Pendule

Pendule extends the built-in Developer tools in Google Chrome. The extension gives its users plenty of features such as one-touch markup validation using W3C’s automated web services, hiding images on a web page, viewing scripts included in a web page, and more.

3. PlainClothes

One of the best ways to evaluate the accessibility of a web page is to remove its CSS styles and see if content being presented is still readable without them. This simulates the experience of a user who cannot see their monitor screen and have to rely on the web page’s markup to access the content. PlainClothes does one thing well; it removes all CSS styles on a web page.

Though created primarily for web development testing, you can use this extension to view your favorite styles unstyled (so that the boss doesn’t catch you browsing Digg when you should really be finishing up that JavaScript function).

4. Image Cropper

If you want to take certain portions of a web page, Image Cropper is the simple, no-frills Chrome extension for you. Just drag around the area you want cropped, and it’ll take just that part of the web page. Need pixel-perfect accuracy? It displays the dimension and location of your crops to help you get just the size you need.

5. Lorem Ipsum Generator

This extension prides itself in being minimalist and simple—and that’s good because there’s no reason generating Lorem Ipsum text should be a convoluted affair. Lorem Ipsum generator helps you fill up your design mockups with dummy text for presentation purposes.

6. IE Tab (for Windows)

Troubleshooting in Internet Explorer’s proprietary Trident layout engine is not a fun ordeal. With IE Tab, you can at least save some time from having to use Internet Explorer (and its limited list of extensions) for debugging rendering issues in your work.

7. jQuery Shell

jQuery Shell allows you to run JavaScript and jQuery commands in the context of the current web page. It’s a great extension for learning and experimenting with jQuery.

8. Color Picker

This one-trick Chrome extension does one thing really well: quickly getting the Hex and RGB values of any color on any web page. It can be very helpful in determining what colors your favorite website uses without having to take a screen grab of it into Photoshop and using the Eyedropper tool.

9. WebEdit

With the WebEdit Chrome extension, you can make any web page editable (the changes you make, of course, will not be saved). Why would this extension be helpful? If you are creating a website and want to play around with elements without making any significant changes to the code, this extension can come in very handy.

10. Chrome Sniffer

Have you ever wondered what technologies, frameworks, and open source apps a website is using? Experienced web developers can find this out by studying the site’s source code, but if you want a more convenient and quick way of doing this, then check out Chrome Sniffer. Chrome Sniffer lists all known JavaScript framework/libraries (jQuery, MooTools, etc.) and CMS (Drupal, WordPress, etc.) that a website uses.

11. Webpage Screenshot

A common task for web designers is taking screen grabs of web pages. With Webpage Screenshot, you can capture an entire web page, even if it spills outside of the browser’s viewport. It gives users the opportunity to resize the window before capturing and saves the screen grab as a PNG file.

12. Eye Dropper

Eye Dropper is a Google Chrome extension that gives you the ability to determine a color on any web page. What’s more is that it presents a color wheel and color swatches (found in most graphics software) so that you can experiment, tweak and pick colors.

13. SEO Site Tools

A well-formed web page with great markup ultimately leads to awesome search engine results. However, if you would like to evaluate your website in terms of known search engine optimization factures, try out the SEO Site Tools, a Chrome extension that gives you a plethora of useful tools and features for evaluating SEO. It can pull tons of on-page and off-page metrics, social media information, and more.

Read more...

Tools To Check The Speed Of Your USB Flash Drive

How do we go about checking the speed of USB flash drives? Maybe the following light and free software can lend a hand ?

Check Flash

The Check Flash website is in Cyrillic (there is an English option too) but it shouldn’t stop anyone from downloading this light and free USB flash drive speed testing and error checking software.

With Check Flash you can test, manage and format your USB flash drive. You can also run a read-write cycle on your USB flash drive, which returns not only the speed but also any errors (read/write or physical) in your USB drive. The software does not rectify the problem but merely reports it.

Check Flash v1.07 runs as an 812KB sized executable and does not require an installation.

HD Speed

HD_Speed is a pint sized software that can be used to gauge the speed of data transfer on your hard disks, CD/DVD ROMS and USB flash drives. This program is compatible with Windows 2000, XP and Vista only, though it supports both FAT and NTFS volumes.

The 80KB utility does not require installation and runs with a click. Select the drive and hit start. The read/write results show up as a graph and also as real values.

Crystal Disk Mark

Crystal Disk Mark is another disk benchmarking tool that can double up as a USB flash drive speed tester. The screen is simple and gives readouts according to the type of tests performed.

Crystal Disk Mark can carry out sequential read/write tests (i.e. read/write data in order) or random 4KB/512KB reads/writes or text copy. The speed test results are displayed as large numerical in MB/s.The 396KB software runs as a standalone executable straight from the box and is compatible with Windows Vista/2003/XP.

Flash Memory Toolkit

Flash Memory Toolkit is advertised as a collection of utilities for flash memory devices. The toolkit includes options to get detailed device information, erase files and recover files lost after a format, hardware failure or an accidental deletion. Backup and restore functions along with our benchmarking task of measuring the read/write performance of the flash drive is available.

Unfortunately, the free standard version gives us only the ability to judge the Read speeds. To calculate both read/write speeds one has to upgrade to the Pro version. Even with this handicap, the ability to measure read speeds along with the File Benchmark feature (which calculates the time it will take to read or write files of various sizes to the device and returns the results as comparative graphs) is a nice help too.The 766KB software (v1.20) is installable on Windows 2000, XP, XP 64-bit, 2003 Server and Vista.

HD Tune

Similar to the aforementioned software, HD Tune also comes in the free and paid flavors. And again, the free version allows for only read speed testing of our USB Flash drives. It also gives a detailed disk information option along with an error scan.

For more advanced aspects one need to dole out for the pro version. If you disregard the missing features in the free version, it is a handy utility to have around because it gives us a lot of benchmarking information like the maximum, minimum and the average transfer rates (i.e. the read speed) along with access time, burst rate (defined as the highest speed at which data can be transferred from the drive to the OS).HD Tune v2.55 is available for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server and Windows Vista.

USB 2.0 has a cutting edge data rate of 480Mbps, and it is rated 40 times faster than the now archaic, USB 1.1, which peaked at 12Mbps. Flash drives are catching up with most now hovering around the 30-40 MB/s mark.

Read more...

Tools to Backup & Restore Installed Windows Drivers

Top 3 freeware softwares that help you to view all the drivers installed on your computer and allows you to backup, restore, all drivers according to your choice.

• DriverMax

DriverMax is a freeware utility that allows you backup and restore the drivers installed on your Windows computer more over a it has a option to download and check for latest driver updates for your computer hardwares.All you need to use DriverMax is a free account that DriverMax will ask you to create and mail you the activation code

DOWNLOAD : DriverMax

• Double Driver

Double Driver is simple free software that allows you to analyzes your system and lists the most important driver details such as version, date, provider, etc and offers the latest version updates. All drivers that are found can easily be backed up the application and easily restored at a later point in one go.

DOWNLOAD : Double Driver

• Driverbackup 2

Driverbackup 2 is another free software created by Giuseppe Greco to backup and restore installed drives on windows Os .It requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.Driverbackup 2 is available in three languages English , Spanish , Italiano and lack the option to check for updated version of Drivers . However Driverbackup 2 is quite simple to use .

DOWNLOAD : Driverbackup 2

Read more...

Tips To Increase Laptop’s Battery Life

Falling just short of carrying an extra pack of batteries in the back-pack, are several ways to keep the juice flowing through the batteries.

1. Ship shape with a defrag

Regular defragmentation helps to arrange data more efficiently thus making the hard drive work less to access the data. The quicker the moving hard drive works lesser is the load placed on the battery. Thus, your batter can last longer. The effect is minimal, but this efficiency goes hand in glove with hard drive maintenance.

2. Kill the resource gobblers

End the background processes that are not vital. Monitor the resource usage through a ‘Ctrl-Alt-Del’ which brings up the Windows Task Manager (in Windows). If you’re not on the internet, it is safe to shut down the immediate non-essential programs running in the taskbar like the antivirus and the firewall. Weed out unnecessary programs running as start-ups by launching the System Configuration Utility from Run – Msconfig – Tab: Startup. Uncheck the programs which you don’t want to launch and reboot the computer once.

3. Pause the scheduled tasks

It may be a defrag or a virus scan, but make sure it is scheduled for a time when you are near a power outlet. If not then nix them for the moment.

4. Unplug external devices

USB devices are the biggest drainers of battery power. Unplug all external devices like an external mouse, PC cards, Wi-Fi, external speakers, Bluetooth and even an attached iPod.

5. Empty the CD/DVD Drives

Even if you don’t intend to use it, don’t leave any CD/DVDs as leftovers in the drives. A spinning drive sucks battery power like a sponge.

6. Go local

Desist using the DVD/external drives while running on batteries. Shift the content to the hard drive or run using (free) virtual drives like Pismo File Mount or even Microsoft’s Virtual CD ROM Control Panel.

7. Lower the lights

The LCD screen of a laptop is another huge power sink. Calibrate the brightness to the lowest level you can tolerate using the Function key toggles or using the Display Settings applet in the Control Panel.

8. Kill the sounds

Mute the speakers and try avoiding the use of multimedia software to maximize the battery life. Installed sound schemes also drain a battery perceptibly.

9. Rid the screensaver

To maximize battery life by a little, switch off the screensaver.

10. Visit Power Options

Get familiar with power management through the ‘Power Options’ applet in the Control Panel. Both XP and Vista come with advanced power management features which shut off components like the monitor and/or the hard drive after specified intervals. This again depends on the chosen ‘Power Schemes’ (for XP) in the same applet. For instance in XP, ‘Max Battery’ under Power Schemes can be selected for maximum battery optimization.

11. Turn off the looks

Today’s OS’s like Windows Vista come with features like ‘Aero Glass’ which are resource guzzlers. One can turn it off and go for the ‘Classic’ appearance which consumes less power. In Vista, click on Desktop – Preferences – View Colour – Appearance – Classic Appearance and Windows Basic graphical interface. In XP it’s – Display Properties – Theme – Windows Classic.

Linux and even Macintosh are better optimized for longer battery life.

12. Hibernate is better than Sleep

In the Stand By mode (or sleep mode), the computer turns of the hard drive and the display but memory remains active while the CPU slows down. This draws on the battery. In contrast, hibernation mode is better because the computer saves the current state and shuts itself down completely thus saving power.

13. Get the most…work on the least

Working on too many programs while on the battery is a sure fire power drainer. Keep use of graphic intensive applications to a minimum. Working on a spreadsheet consumes much less than playing your favourite game. To increase the life of the battery open just one or two programs concurrently.

14. Ram in more RAM

Adequate RAM reduces the load on Virtual memory which by default resides on the hard drive. Though every extra bit of RAM uses up more power, it increases overall savings by short cutting access to the power hungry hard drive.

15. Keep it clean

A laptop with blocked air vents will generate more heat thus reducing the life of the battery. Clean the air vents regularly to keep operating temperatures low. Allow for open space around the vents for air to circulate freely. Keep the area around the laptop clean to avoid entry of dust.

16. Temperature is a silent killer

Undue heat kills off a battery slowly but surely. Avoid leaving the laptop under direct sunlight or inside a closed car.

17. Avoid the memory effect

A problem more for the older Ni-MH batteries than for Li-Ion batteries on which most modern laptops run. Memory effect relates to the loss of battery charge when they are repeatedly recharged after being only partially discharged. It can be prevented by discharging the battery fully and then completely recharging it. Li-Ion batteries on the other hand have no problems with partial discharges and re-charges and complete discharge is never recommended for this type.

18. Update software and drivers

This sounds a bit incongruous but then newer drivers and software are often designed to be more efficient (and hopefully less resource hungry).

19. Use the right adapter

Ensure that the adapter you use to charge the laptop battery is an original one or one with the correct specifications. A mismatch in the wattage could cause an overload thus damaging the laptop and the battery.

20. Pack it up

If you don’t plan to use the laptop on batteries for quite some time, ensure that the charge is nearly 40 percent – remove the batteries and store it in a cool place.

A typical lithium ion battery has an overall average life of 2-3 years. With some care and caution, its mortality can be delayed.

Have you found your own way to increase battery life of your laptop? Share the ‘life giving’ tips with us in the comments.

Read more...

Top 10 Electronic Reminder Services

With these e-reminder services; create to-do lists, share your calendar, and send reminders to your phone, e-mail, RSS reader, and more with these organizational tools.

 

1. Evernote

You’ll never forget your thoughts and tasks if you use Evernote. This powerful application stores all of your information in your personal Evernote account and can be retrieved on the Web, on your desktop, and on your phone. To get your stuff into Evernote, create new notes using the desktop, Web, and mobile versions of Evernote; take a snapshot using your camera phone or webcam, and the app will recognize the text in the image; clip Webpages and screenshots; drag and drop content into the desktop clients for Mac and Windows; e-mail notes to your account; scan receipts, tags, and the like; and record audio wherever you are and listen to it later.

2. Remember The Milk

Whether your preferred method of receiving reminders is through e-mail, SMS, or instant message, Remember The Milk offers them all. This to-do list Web service lets you create as many lists as you like, share them with others, and tag them. Say you create a grocery shopping list and need to know if there’s a coffee shop near the grocer on your way home; Remember The Milk will locate where the store is and what’s around it by interacting with Google Maps. Besides using the Web site to send your reminders, you can also use the service through Google Calendar, Twitter, Google Gears, MilkSync for BlackBerry, and download it to the Apple iPhone for free.

3. Backpackit.com

Web-based organizational service that’s both straightforward and intuitive, letting you download calendars and share documents online. We like to think of the service as an online loose-leaf notebook that you can use whenever you please, inputting medical records, travel plans, school itineraries, social gatherings, and so on onto every page. When you sign up, you’ll create a username and password as well as a unique Backpackit.com URL for easy access to your Backpack pages. You can add as many notes and lists as you want to your page, and Backpack’s messaging service lets you schedule e-mail or SMS reminders to be sent out at a specific time or at a Backpack preset time.

4. Doomi

Doomi is a simple-to-use desktop app that takes little effort to set up. All you do is add a task in the form field and press Enter. Click on the clock icon on the ride side to remind you of the task at a designated time. When you’ve finished a task, mark the checkbox next to it. Before you install Doomi, you’ll need to download Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime): It’s a runtime engine for Windows, Mac, and Linux that supports rich Internet applications and allows an application to run without using a Web browser. That means you’ll be able to use Doomi offline, without running your Web browser.

5. Google Calendar

Organize your events and collaborate with others using Google Calendar. The application looks like a calendar, so all you do is click on which days you’d like to add your event or task. Then fill in the start time, end time, location, and description of your event, and set your desired notification setting, whether it’s by e-mail, text message, or a pop-up message on your computer. You can even send an invitation to your event, or information about your event, to others. Access Google Calendar on your mobile phone by pointing your browser to mobile.google.com/calendar.

6. ReminderFeed

Most reminder services alert you via e-mail and text message; but ReminderFeed delivers your messages right to your RSS reader. Just fill in the online form—including start date, end date, and description—and ReminderFeed will give you a feed URL that you can add to your favorite RSS reader. You’ll receive your reminder at the same time each day, which comes in handy for timely tasks such as picking up the kids from daycare or remembering a dinner date. Best of all, you don’t have to create an account, so just dive right in.

7. Toodledo

Never have to remember anything again with Toodledo. This online tool offers a “hotlist” where all of your tasks are permanently stored with due dates. Toodledo offers inline editing so that you can add, edit, and complete tasks without making the page reload. There are folders for organizing your tasks, a calendar for a visual presentation of your tasks due, and so much more. You can get Toodledo on your mobile phone, in your e-mail, on your calendar, in your RSS reader, via IM, and integrated directly into your Web browser. You can even print out a foldable booklet of all your tasks. Toodledo is now available for the iPhone/iPod touch.

8. Cozi

Designed specifically for families, Cozi is a free service that provides you and your family with everything you need to get organized. With the Family Calendar, all of your appointments can be color-coded by family member. You can build customizable lists to remember your grocery list, shopping list, chores, and more. Get appointment reminders by text and e-mail. Or send a quick message to your family from your family home page. Sign in to Cozi from your computer, phone (at m.cozi.com), or call Cozi toll-free to get your grocery list.

9. Jott

Not near a computer to create your to-do lists? Then you’ll want to use Jott for capturing thoughts, creating lists, and setting reminders—all by phone. Call 1-866-JOTT-123 to dictate your message, then say whether you want that message to be delivered via e-mail or SMS. Jott will capture your voice, turn it into text, and send it off. You can set Jott to remind you 15 minutes before a task needs to be started. Your notes are always available online at Jott.com in the Jott Express desktop tool, too. Download Jott to your Apple iPhone; it’s free for Jott subscribers and replicates most of the functionality in Jott’s call-in service.

10. Nozbe

Targeted at both individuals and businesses, Nozbe is a project-management and time-tracking application for those with a lot of stuff to do and no time to keep track of it all. Organize your tasks and notes into projects, ’star’ any task that needs to be done next, schedule appointments using the built-in calendar, and manage your Nozbe account on your iPhone, iGoogle, or Netvibes homepage, or even on Apple Dashboard.

Read more...

Online Free Web Based Applications

These are few online free web based applications that are very helpful for you to process your daily work. Whether you are designer, developer, office worker, manager, supervisor, student, home user, etc. But we make sure to add something interesting for everyone. Most of them are not very well-known, but they are really amazing in respect to their features. Just take a look at them and share your thought here.You are welcome to share if you know more free online web based application that our readers may like.

TweetLater

With TweetLater you can schedule future tweets for all your twitter accounts. Keep your Twitter stream ticking over with new tweets even when you’re not in front of your computer. Or, use it as your personal reminder system.

Screencast-O-Matic

Screencast-O-Matic is the free and easy way to create a video recording of your screen (aka screencast) and upload it for free hosting all from your browser with no install!

Site-Perf

With Site-Perf.com, you get an accurate, realistic, and helpful estimation of your site’s loading speed. The script fully emulates natural browser behaviour downloading your page with all the images, CSS, JS and other files – just like a regular user.

TextReminders

TextReminders.net is a free service that allows you to send out free text messages (sms) to others. Use the form below to send out an immediate text message to a friend. It won’t cost you anything to send the text message, however standard text messaging rates my apply to the receiver.

Letterfu

Letterfu is a website that provides you foldable letter templates. You can take their print out. You will need to choose the template you like, print it, write message on it and finally just fold it according to the instructions on the website before sending to anyone. That means you will no need for the envelope anymore.

Yammer

Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: “What are you working on?” As employees answer that question, a feed is created in one central location enabling co-workers to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions, and share links and other information.

DrawAnywhere

DrawAnywhere is an online diagramming website, where you can draw, modify and share flowcharts and other diagrams, with the look & feel of a desktop application. It runs on any browser with Flash 9 installed. There is no need to download software. It is an always-on-access-anywhere solution. It meets all your diagramming needs purchasing expensive software.

tinymail.me

Tinymail is an anti spam blocker and protection tool which secures and blocks out your email address from bots and stops junk mail from cluttering your Outlook Exchange, Gmail, Yahoo client.

Quarkbase

Quarkbase is a free tool to find complete information about a website. It is a mashup of over 30 data sources and many algorithms gathering information from Internet on various topics like social popularity, traffic, associated people, etc.

Broong

Broong is an online social note service that lets people search, create and share multimedia content via a quick note from anywhere with everyone. People use Broong to search, create and share their thoughts, videos and pictures across multiple platforms over desktop and mobile devices.

formatpixel

Create your own online magazines, fanzines, brochures, catalogues, portfolios and more. Using the formatpixel online editor you too can design page based projects, layout text, upload your own images, add interactivity and customise their appearance.

pleasenotify.me

pleasenotify.me is a simple, free service to let you send tasks to people, and be notified when they’re done. You can use the form to email someone a task. If they don’t mark it complete by the time you specify, both of you will be notified. You’ll both be reminded daily until it’s finally completed. It’s the simplest project management imaginable.

AbouThiSite

This website can help you to find out who is the owner of any website, where are the server located and other websites name hosted on the same server etc

kissa.be

This is really helpful and interesting multipurpose web application that integrates 3 useful features in one website. These are URL shortener, email ‘mailto’ link protector and a tool that helps you overcome max. character limitation.

SantexQ

SantexQ, or “the Q” as you like to call it, is a web-based tool created to assist businesses in the detail-driven world of time and task management. Designed to enhance team efficiency, the Q keeps the critical information close by: the progress reports, deadlines and time budgets for all of your projects…all available at a glance.

Anyvite

Anyvite is a site designed to give you the necessary tools to quickly and effectively coordinate plans with your friends, without any unnecessary or confusing features to slow you down.

Zapproved

Zapproved is a lightweight Web tool that makes group decision-making faster, easier and more accountable. It is a unique solution that introduces peer-to-peer and organizational techniques to improve the process of building consensus.
Read more...

Top 10 Tips to Protect Your Personal Email

 

E-mail and instant messaging (IM) are terrific forms of communication for keeping in touch with family, friends, and business associates. However, using them unwisely may make you and your computer susceptible to spam, phishing scams, viruses, and other online threats. Here are some tips to avoid these problems:

1. Obtain comprehensive security software. Be sure that the security software you select is like McAfee Internet Security and protects you and your PC from viruses, worms, Trojans, unwanted e-mail (spam), phishing scams, and other malicious software. It should also have a firewall like McAfee’s products, which can monitor your Internet connection and stop unwanted traffic to and from your PC. Be sure to keep your security software up-to-date. Ideally, you want it to be like McAfee’s Internet Security Suite that has automatic updates and upgrades.

2. Share your e-mail address with only trusted sources. Only your family, friends, and trusted business contacts should have your personal e-mail address. Do not post your e-mail address on Web sites, forums, or in chat rooms. If you post your e-mail address, you are vulnerable to receiving spam or having your e-mail passed on to others. If you would like to subscribe to a newsletter or Web site and receive confirmation e-mail for online transactions, consider using a generic e-mail address that is not linked to any of your personal information. An example of a generic e-mail address is giraffe@samplee-mail.com.

3. Be careful when opening attachments and downloading files from friends and family or accepting unknown e-mails. You can obtain a virus, worm, or Trojan simply by opening e-mail and attachments, and by accepting files from your friends, family, or others. If you choose to download files, make sure your security software is enabled and pay close attention to any warnings provided.

4. Be smart when using IM programs. If you use an IM program to communicate with friends and family, be careful when sending any personal information. Protect yourself by using a nickname for your IM screen name. Never accept strangers into your IM groups. Be smart about how you use your personal IM at work because your employer may monitor and view your personal messages.

5. Watch out for phishing scams. Phishing scams use fraudulent e-mails and fake Web sites, masquerading as legitimate businesses, to lure unsuspecting users into revealing private account or login information. To be safe, if you receive an e-mail from a business that includes a link to a Web site, make certain that the Web site you visit is legitimate. Instead of clicking through to the Web site from within the e-mail, open a separate Web browser and visit the business’ Web site directly to perform the necessary actions. You can also verify that an e-mail is in fact from a legitimate business by calling the business or agency directly.

6. Use e-mail wisely. E-mail is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, and as a tool to conduct business. Even if you have good security software on your PC, your friends and family might not have the same protection. Be careful about what information you submit via e-mail. Never send your credit-card information, Social Security number, or other private information via e-mail.

7. Do not reply to spam e-mail. If you don’t recognize the sender, don’t respond. Even replying to spam mail to unsubscribe could set you up for more spam.

8. Create a complex e-mail address. With a complex e-mail address, it makes it more difficult for hackers to auto-generate your e-mail, send spam e-mail, or target your e-mail for other types of attacks. Make sure you come up with an e-mail address that you can easily remember. Try to use letters, numbers, and other characters in a unique combination. Substitute numbers for letters when you can. A sample complex e-mail is: Tracy3Socc3r2@samplee-mail.com.

9. Create smart and strong passwords. Make it difficult for hackers to crack your password. You can create a smart password by incorporating capital letters, numbers, special characters and using more than six characters. An example of a strong password is: Go1dM!n3.

10. Never enter your personal information into a pop-up screen. Sometimes a phisher will direct you to a real organization’s Web site, but then an unauthorized pop-up screen created by the scammer will appear, with blanks in which to provide your personal information. If you fill it in, your information will go to the phisher. Install pop-up blocking software to help prevent this type of phishing attack.

Read more...

Cool Facebook Applications

These apps are the most popular ones. But others are useful, innovative and praiseworthy. Whether you’re a Facebook veteran or newbie, you should find something worth adding. And it's important to keep your profile manageable, not least because there's always some cool new apps to add.

1. Sketch Me. Genuinely awesome app that takes a photo of you, and turns it into a faux pencil sketch, for that arty look. Get it

2. Send SMS. This neat app puts a box on your profile allowing friends to send you text messages for free (they have ads attached, mind). Get it

3. What I’m Listening To. Excellent application that updates live to show anyone viewing your profile what song you’re listening to RIGHT NOW in iTunes, Winamp or other music players. Get it

4. Simpsons Avatar Creator (pictured). There's already a website letting you turn yourself into a Simpson’s character, but now there's an unofficial Facebook application too. It's already got more than 83,000 users too. You’d look great in a natty shade of yellow. Get it

5. Photo Mosaic. Create nifty mosaics from your Facebook photo stash. It’s what the Romans would’ve done (if they’d had the internet). It's quite an arty collection of applications this week. This one lets you turn your Facebook photos into mosaics, for your friends to admire. Get it

6. Nike+ Runs. If you use the Nike+ iPod software, this app lets you publish details of your recent runs on your Facebook profile. No more pretending you slogged through an 18 mile hike when in fact you got tired by the corner shop and sloped home with a packet of cigarettes instead. Get it

7. Compare People. Decide who the best dancer, the cutest, is and the smartest friend. Oh, and the one who has most time to spend making comparisons on internet websites, obviously. Get it

Read more...

Disable Autoplay via group policy in Win XP

 

Autoplay or also called Autorun is a feature in Windows that automatically launches the content of your CD or DVD when you insert your CD or DVD into the drive. The autoplay or autorun  can be easily disabled.Because there are many versions of Windows and because Windows can be managed in many ways, the autorun or autoplay feature can be turned off in many different ways as well.

    * Autorun & Autoplay can be turned off via Windows CD-DVD drive interface
    * It can also be turned of by modifying your computer registry

We talk more about these methods at the Turn off and disable CD-ROM autorun and autoplay page.There is one other way of disabling the autorun / autoplay feature which is more global relative to your computer.Disable autorun / autoplay via group policy.You can configure your Windows to disable the autoplay feature for all of your system's drives. This can be done using so called group policy for your computer.

Group policy is a feature in modern Windows that provides centralized management and configuration of computers and remote users in an Active Directory environment. You can find more details about group policies at the Group policy page.This way of disabling the autoplay capability is often used for security reasons on shared computers.If you want to disable the autoplay / autorun feature, follow these steps:

Go to your Start menu and click Run. You can get to here also by pressing the Windows and R buttons simultaneously.Type GPEDIT.MSC and hit ENTER. This brings up so called Group Policy Editor.

Autoplay / Autorun in Windows XP:

If you are in Windows XP, then locate the

Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System

Scroll down in the right pane until you find the Turn off Autoplay item. Double-click the Turn off Autoplay. When you are in the Turn off Autoplay Properties dialog box, click Enabled. And finally choose All drives from the drop-down list underneath.

Autoplay / Autorun in Windows Vista:

If you are in Windows Vista, then locate the following policy

Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\AutoPlay Policies

Find the Turn off Autoplay policy and double-click it, or you can also right-click it and select Properties. Click Enabled and then OK. Then, double-click the Default behaviour for Auto Run. Click Enabled, and choose Do not execute any autorun commands in the resulting drop-down list.You may need to log off for the change in the Autoplay group policy to take effect.Disable autoplay / autorun group policy guide

The print screen below shows how autoplay / autorun can be disable via a group policy in Windows XP.

Read more...

Boost your internet Speed by releasing Reserved Bandwidth

 

By default, Windows Vista/XP reserves 20% of the connection bandwidth for QoS traffic. This tweak allows the setting to be altered to a different percentage of connection bandwidth.You can release this by following these steps.

  1. Go to run and type gpedit.msc .
  2. Navigate to Computer Configuration ----> Administrative templates ---->Network.
  3. Open QoS Packet Scheduler.
  4. Double click Limit Reservable Bandwidth.
  5. Not configured would be chosen. However by default the value is 20% .
  6. Select enable and make the value 0.
  7. This should boost your net speed considerably.

Read more...